Who wouldn’t
love spending their birthday in a “country” that the rest of the World doesn’t
recognize as legitimate? This month I am back in Moldova, but in a different
area of the country… just outside this region known as Transnistria, which is a
section of Moldova that was
occupied my Russian military forces and then claimed its own independence as a
country 20 years ago, but no other nation accepts it as such. Yea, I’m just as
confused as you are.
Well, it just happened that a major city in Transnistria, Bender, has the same birthday as me, and was celebrating 602 years! So we decided to celebrate together… the city and I… the fun part of getting to Bender is that you have to undergo a rigorous border crossing into Transnistria; its the hardest border crossing we have had yet… for a country that doesn’t really exist!
Anyways, we get into the city, and after grabbing some ridiculous clothing from the 2nd Hand store (since this is month is cold!), we headed off for some lunch. And October 8th must be a popular day for things being born, because there was a birthday party going on at the restaurant we went to, which demanded some creative ways to get a table for 15 in this packed place. My party was definitely better, even without the sweet pink balloons and ribbons everywhere… (ok maybe I was jealous).
After lunch, we went into a market area where there was some great Transnistrian festivities going on to get some cakes made by local Babushkas (Russian grandmothers), some of which were delicious, and others, yea not so much. Either way, our ministry contact was kind enough to shove a cake in my face as a blessing on this day of celebration. It looked like I got a little wild with some chocolate lipstick.
Then out of nowhere, some friends of our contact that were with us appeared with a framed picture of my team (with “happy birthday” edited into it) that we had just taken after we left the restaurant! It was one of the most thoughtful gifts ive ever gotten, and from someone I had known for 2 days! Just another reminder of God’s goodness and love in people all over the world.
From here, we stumbled upon this outdoor entertainment area- a place to me a kid again, haha. I almost went on the trampoline but thought it wasn’t worth the money, and then was glad I saved it to spend on taking some leg-powered mini-race-cars for a spin, which turned into a race against a few of us big kids. The fun was only just beginning though, as we also had to test out these huge bouncy stilt that made you a cross between a giant and a moonwalker (check out pics on fb). It was just icing on the cake that they let me do it for free because it was my birthday, holla!
The climax, however, was discovering a wedding party happening on a boat on the river where we were. We crashed the wedding… from the shore. We all were dancing it up like crazy as they did their thing on the boat, loving every second of our side-party. It was a memorable World Race and birthday moment to say the least. I can only hope it was just as memorable for those newlyweds. They got free wedding-entertainment, so I’m sure they won’t ever forget us :). I don’t think the city of Bender will ever forget its 602nd birthday either. Thanks for celebrating it with me old man Bender. Transnistria really needs to work on its 20-year long identity crisis though. Please pray for this strange place. Thanks.
Enjoy this epic picture of us crashing the wedding from the shore:
